Spring has sprung!

Of course it's 90 degrees in Baltimore today, so it's a bit redundant to say that "Spring has sprung."

I'm fearful that we jumped straight from winter weather to summer weather and I want to stop and smell all the pretty spring flowers.

Over the weekend the hubs and I stopped by the Baltimore Conservatory and followed the yellow brick road through their Wizard of Oz display. It was pretty cool and an excellent way to stop and smell the tulips :)

"You're taking your wife where?!?!?!"

Was what met my hubs at work last Friday. See, my hubs, brother, and brother-in-law were discussing at work their game plan for our paintball adventure planned for the following day (yes, all three guys work together). Of course, one of my husband's co-workers were a bit surprised that I was going paintballing.

Turns out the whole thing was my idea!!!

See, a saw something on Groupon and just had to do it! Join for free if you want. You never know what you'll find.




Ouch!!!


Next Year's Christmas card perhaps?





You can't see me!


I'm out!!!
My three Amigos!








It turns out that running around like a crazy person and shooting people with small paintballs is actually a lot of fun. We're definitely going back again. :)

Weather forecast = fail

Have you ever noticed that the weather forecast crew can be so off based so frequently, or so it seems, and yet, still be gainfully employed? Then again, if you were a major league batter and you averaged a hit 3 out of 10 trips to the plate over the course of your career, well, you'd have Hall of Fame numbers. Now, I don't know about you, but if I only succeeded at my job as often as professional baseball players and weather reporters, it seems I'd probably be out of my job. So much for picking the right career path!

It just strikes me as odd because it seems so many news channels proclaim that their station provides, "the accurate forecast." I wonder if a weather person's family members even bother asking for a weather forecast at the dinning room table?

There were rumblings at the beginning of last week for a chance of snow this past weekend. Once that rumor hit the water cooler it seemed everyone started playing a game of, "I heard we were going to get *** inches of snow." Seriously, it's like a giant fish story, someone always hears of a larger snow forecast.

By mid-week the rumblings were telling a different story and saying that the storm was going to stay to the south and the greater Baltimore area was only going to receive a dusting of snow.

Enter Saturday, 11am- it starts snowing.

Enter Saturday, 4pm- the hubs takes the dogs outside and cleans the 4-6 inches of snow off of our sidewalks and cars.

Sure, because 4-6 inches of snow might be considered a "dusting" in some areas, but we don't live in one of those areas. I'm only slightly bitter because I've been feeling under the weather (pun not intended) all weekend and I didn't even want to go outside and spend a second in the snow. The hubs was concerned.

At least Jax had a good time:




Jewels, not so much:

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Whoopi!!! The Baltimore area was hit with a major snowstorm over the weekend and I couldn't be happier. Honestly, if getting 20 inches of snow on a Saturday isn't a blessing, then I don't know what is. Okay, I might be a bit biased on that one, but I love snow.



Cleaning off the cars, round one. Have I ever mentioned that on-street parking SUCKS!!!



Yeah, my car isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

In true fashion Jewels wanted absolutely nothing to do with the elements. Of course, Jax wanted nothing to do but to play in the snow.






Day Two:

I love snow when it's in that "fresh and clean" stage. It doesn't last long, but it's so beautiful.


Again, on-street parking isn't cool.

Can I interest you in a truckload of snow?





Can you guess which of our dogs slept like a baby all afternoon?

Look! It's a bee

Normally, I'm not really a fan of bees. The whole getting stung aspect of bee interaction usually leaves me in a sour mood. Yesterday afternoon I was outside letting Jax and Jewels roam around when I saw a super bright red Cardinal hanging out in an oak tree. I ran inside to get my camera in the hopes of getting a picture of a cute red head (clearly, I'm biased), but the Cardinal ditched me before I could snap a picture.

I was minding my own business taking a quick picture of a cool looking yellow flower when all of the sudden a bee popped up and starting rubbing around in some pollen. Traditionally, that's when I would have freaked out and ran away from the bee. I'm a wimp when it comes to insects.

I resisted my inner temptation to run away and snapped a few pictures of said bee. He (I think) was a perfect model for thirty seconds and then he fly away to pollinate another flower.

Yay, bee pictures!!!


Yeah, that's Jax roaming around in the background.

Camp out!

The hubs and I met up with my best friend and her boyfriend out at Deep Creek State Park in western Maryland over the weekend. My best friend and her boyfriend go camping quite often and this past weekend was the first time the hubs and I were able to join them.


Yes, I may hate pink, but I have a purple tent. Go figure.

The day started out cloudy and cool on Saturday, but the sun came out later in the day.


The hubs is secretly wishing he brought his fishing gear.

Once the sun came out everyone jumped into the water. I'm the world's worst swimmer, so I barely went in the water. I only went in due to peer pressure and well, I didn't want to be the only person hanging out on the boat all day.
He's such a ham.

This is the good life.

Now, only if my skin didn't hate the sun, then this would have been a perfect day. I'm kidding, it was a great weekend. Maybe next time we can go hiking and do a few more traditional camping activities.

4th of July recap

I ditched the hubs this past weekend. My family was having a little shindig up in New York and all the hubs wanted to do was play video games and veg out for three days. To be fair, he's insanely busy at work and we have plans every weekend from now until mid-September. The guy is definitely entitled to some peace and quite every now and then. Nothing says "take some time for yourself," like being left home alone.

Thank goodness I no longer have to drive up to New York by myself. I can now tag along with my brother, who unfortunately suffers from male-fall-asleep-as-soon-as-he's-not-driving-syndrome. That guy has got it bad!!! Seriously, he used to fall asleep all the time when we were kids, I'm amazed that he can stay awake long enough to drive his car.

Instead of boring you with all the standard family get-together hoopla, I'll just share a few things. One, my Grandpa Joe turned 90 and as anyone who is that close to 100 years young gets to do, he imparted some health advice. Unfortunately, his advice was to give up coffee. Yikes! Well, it doesn't look like I'll be living till 90 in this life time. Maybe next time. Two, never, ever show off to a 9 year old and throw a bocce ball up into the air and catch it. The kid will try to replicate this action and it may or may not split his or her lip open. (Thank goodness Denzel just split his lip open and didn't break a tooth or anything like that.) Finally, always have a hoodie in your car. I was freezing all day and had to bum a hoodie off of my sister. As did my Aunt Ev and a few of my sister's friends.

I left my camera stashed in my bag most of the weekend so I only have a few pictures to share.


A Sonic opened in Wilkes Barre, PA and I begged my brother to take a small detour and stop on by. I've never had Sonic before and after years of seeing their commercials I wanted to give it a try. The verdict- eating fast food while parked is kind of weird, but the Peanut Butter milkshake was divine. Plus, it was pouring, so it was nice to park the car and try to wait out the rain (like that ever works).

Great Danes like to roll themselves into the smallest balls possible. Jasmine wouldn't pose for any pictures and it seems she isn't a fan of cameras in general. I can't wait for Christmas this year and see how Jax and Jewels react to such a big dog. Oh, it's going to be so much fun.

One of my lifetime goals is to have a little cabin in the woods somewhere. Specifically, it could look like my grandpa's old cabin


or it could just have a view like this.
Either way, I think I need to have a house on a lake. Plus, the hubs wouldn't have to go far to go fishing. It seems it has rained almost every day in the Hudson Valley and this past weekend was one of the few nice days in a really long time. Sweet!

Of course it wouldn't be a trip to the woods without a wildlife encounter. As my brother and I were driving away I saw something move in the woods and I immediately shouted, "bear cub!" My brother instinctively jammed on the breaks, asked where and then threw the car in reverse. There are two things to keep in mind when you're within 20 feet of a bear cub: don't get any closer and have plenty of eyes keeping a lookout for mama bear.

Sure, this picture is horrible, but you can clearly tell that's a bear cub and it's not a fuzzy picture of Big Foot. In my own defense, the cub was hanging out in a dimly lit part of the woods. I was wearing flip flops and I wasn't about to enter said woods. And the little guy started to move once he realized I was there and I wanted to jump back in the car before the little one made that terrible bear cub cry and mama bear came over and showed me that it is rude to take pictures of a kid without asking mom for permission first. There are a few animals I don't mess with in the woods: rattle snakes, copperheads, raccoons, coyotes, and ticked off mama bears. That's just practical logic in my mind.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday weekend.

What to do this weekend?

If you haven't made plans for this weekend, then I suggest you take a trip to one of our country's national parks. This weekend is the first of three free weekends that the U.S. National Park Service is offering this summer. You can read more about this special offer here.

Why hello there spring time

I think there is one constant thing about spring and fall- the fickle weather. One day it's snowing and then a few days later it's 70 degrees. At least that has been the case this past week.

I'm fairly certain that there will be one or two more blasts of cold weather this spring, but it looks like things are starting to warm up. I'm still a little surprised that Saturday had temperatures in the 70s (not completely shocked because there were 60 degree days in February). Of course these constant cold and warm temperature shifts have left our backyard in a state of disarray. There's more mud out back than there is grass, which doesn't look so nice when it is tracked inside by two dogs (or a husband, take your pick).

Thank goodness we have a large public park less than five minutes away. The ground was much dryer there than our backyard, which is odd considering the multiple streams running through the park. Jax and Jewels are definitely out of shape, but hopefully in a few weeks they'll be back in fighting shape and will be able to tackle the more strenuous trails.

I'm just excited that I got to wear my flip flops out on Saturday afternoon! Of course my good mood was able to carry me through a screening of Watchmen, which wasn't nearly as good as I was hoping it would be.

Pit stop #1.

Pit stop #2. Good thing I brought my Nalgene bottle. Funny story about the little spray bottle seen in the background. When Jewels was in obedience class, the instructor sprayed her with a water bottle when Jewels would bark at other dogs. Now, all the hubs and I have to do is just hold a spray bottle and Jewels acts like a somewhat non-hateful dog. She doesn't play well with others.

Let's go!

Jax is all about going in the stream.

Jewels, on the other hand, is not a fan of the water.

The hubs and I can't wait to take the dogs out again next weekend. We're going to try to make it to the park at least twice a month this spring and summer.

March came in like a lion!

I guess that silly old groundhog knew what he was saying. The hubs and I, as with most of the east coast, can tell you that March began with a pretty impressive snowstorm. Yes, I'm insanely jealous of any areas that received eight plus inches of snow, but I'll take the 4-6 inches the Baltimore area received.

Thankfully, because it is indeed March and the days are just a tinny bit longer, the hubs and I were able to give Jax and Jewels a run for their money after work. Here is a valuable piece of advice to any of you who may ever visit: never challenge the hubs to a snow ball fight. You will lose, especially if Jax is on his team.


Hmmmm, I think I might skip running today's run.


Flying puppy.






I'm pretty sure this is when I said, "enough," because Jax kept knocking me over and I was tired of him landing on me.

My snow buddies. *

That's one wet dog sweater!

*Jewels was not neglected during this outing. She lasted a few minutes outside and then was promptly taken inside where she could hang out in her warm and toasty kennel. Trust us, she was much happier inside.